Efficient delivery of cell impermeable phosphopeptides by a cyclic peptide amphiphile containing tryptophan and arginine

Mol Pharm. 2013 May 6;10(5):2008-20. doi: 10.1021/mp400046u. Epub 2013 Apr 15.

Abstract

Phosphopeptides are valuable reagent probes for studying protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions. The cellular delivery of phosphopeptides is challenging because of the presence of the negatively charged phosphate group. The cellular uptake of a number of fluorescent-labeled phosphopeptides, including F'-GpYLPQTV, F'-NEpYTARQ, F'-AEEEIYGEFEAKKKK, F'-PEpYLGLD, F'-pYVNVQN-NH2, and F'-GpYEEI (F' = fluorescein), was evaluated in the presence or absence of a [WR]4, a cyclic peptide containing alternative arginine (R) and tryptophan (W) residues, in human leukemia cells (CCRF-CEM) after 2 h incubation using flow cytometry. [WR]4 improved significantly the cellular uptake of all phosphopeptides. PEpYLGLD is a sequence that mimics the pTyr1246 of ErbB2 that is responsible for binding to the Chk SH2 domain. The cellular uptake of F'-PEpYLGLD was enhanced dramatically by 27-fold in the presence of [WR]4 and was found to be time-dependent. Confocal microscopy of a mixture of F'-PEpYLGLD and [WR]4 in live cells exhibited intracellular localization and significantly higher cellular uptake compared to that of F'-PEpYLGLD alone. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and isothermal calorimetry (ITC) were used to study the interaction of PEpYLGLD and [WR]4. TEM results showed that the mixture of PEpYLGLD and [WR]4 formed noncircular nanosized structures with width and height of 125 and 60 nm, respectively. ITC binding studies confirmed the interaction between [WR]4 and PEpYLGLD. The binding isotherm curves, derived from sequential binding models, showed an exothermic interaction driven by entropy. These studies suggest that amphiphilic peptide [WR]4 can be used as a cellular delivery tool of cell-impermeable negatively charged phosphopeptides.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Amino Acid Sequence
  • Arginine / chemistry
  • Biological Transport, Active
  • Cell Line, Tumor
  • Cell Membrane Permeability
  • Drug Carriers / chemistry
  • Drug Delivery Systems
  • Fluorescent Dyes / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Molecular Structure
  • Peptides, Cyclic / chemistry
  • Phosphopeptides / administration & dosage*
  • Phosphopeptides / chemistry*
  • Phosphopeptides / pharmacokinetics
  • Protein Interaction Domains and Motifs
  • Surface-Active Agents / chemistry
  • Thermodynamics
  • Tryptophan / chemistry

Substances

  • Drug Carriers
  • Fluorescent Dyes
  • Peptides, Cyclic
  • Phosphopeptides
  • Surface-Active Agents
  • Tryptophan
  • Arginine